Article: Minnesota Twins Minor League Report (6/11): Boss Berrios

[Trevor0333]

While you definitely have to consider the fly ball ratio as a factor thats a small piece of the puzzle. He's dominating while being 3 years under the average age, not having been a full time pitcher until later than most. Hammond maybe forgiving the normal OF for them has been Harrison/Kepler/Walker. Not exactly a bunch of burners covering a ton of ground.

[Tibs]

Hey Klaw, how about the 28% K-rate, stadium-related? (3rd best in FSL, the two pitchers ahead of him are 25 and 21 years old).

Yeah I'm not sure how his K-rate benefits from playing in the stadium. I guess he is ignoring that stat.

[nicksaviking]

What if strike 3 is a passed ball, and upon retrieving it, the catcher throws wildly to first allowing the runner to go to second. As the pitcher strikes out the next batter, the runner attempts to steal third and the catcher's throw skips away, and the runner scampers home. The pitcher strikes out the next 2 batters en route to an improbable 28 strike out performance, going even above and beyond what God intended, yet he loses the game 1-0 as the opposing pitchers scatter 8 hits.

 

Yes we can consider that, and four consecutive past ball strike out's as unearned. I'm fine with that.

[Badsmerf]

Regarding charoman's comment I am not in love with the strikeout at all costs mentality. Its true that our starters lacked strikeout ability but its not just about power arms. They also lacked stuff and control. If you look at the team ERA leaders they are mostly middle of the pack for strikeouts. If you look at the strikeout leaders they are mostly middle of the pack ERA. Bottom of league strikeouts is a problem. To become top of the league should not be the goal. The goal should be best of league for ERA. The best way to achieve that is with stuff and control. Mph is a subset of stuff. It is not the universe.

Have you even looked at league leaders in stats? Everything you just said is wrong. Do some research. Strikeouts aren't the end all be all, but they are pretty pivotal for a pitcher. It's been said countless times on here, a ball put into play will fall for a hit a certain amount of the time. Some pitchers are a little better at avoiding hits than others, but they are all pretty close. Strikeouts eliminate a ball being put in play and thus less balls in play means less hits, less baserunners, and less runs. Don't buy into the twins gimmick about pitching to contact.. it simply just doesn't work.

[jokin]

While you definitely have to consider the fly ball ratio as a factor thats a small piece of the puzzle. He's dominating while being 3 years under the average age, not having been a full time pitcher until later than most. Hammond maybe forgiving the normal OF for them has been Harrison/Kepler/Walker. Not exactly a bunch of burners covering a ton of ground.

 

Yeah, exactly. And can you imagine the grief Klaw might give Berrios about being a FB pitcher, if he were to put up numbers even better than this in New Britain later this year, with Buxton back and Rosario manning LF?

[Brock Beauchamp]

Here's a pretty cool comment from our Facebook page:

 

"Jose is such a hard worker. When I was his host mom in Elizabethton, he was always the first to bed and always up before I left for work eating his Fruit Loops. I say send him up! He has awesome control and I think he is mature enough for AA."

 

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[Otto von Ballpark]

"Jose is such a hard worker. When I was his host mom in Elizabethton, he was always the first to bed and always up before I left for work eating his Fruit Loops. I say send him up! He has awesome control and I think he is mature enough for AA."

 

Does his choice of Froot Loops contradict the maturity statement?

[Mike Sixel]

Why do people get so angry when people disagree with them? Or offensive in needing to attack? KLaw has a different opinion than you, that doesn't make him bad, wrong, evil, stupid.

[Steven Buhr]

Why do people get so angry when people disagree with them? Or offensive in needing to attack? KLaw has a different opinion than you, that doesn't make him bad, wrong, evil, stupid.

 

No, just because someone disagrees with me, it doesn't make him/her all of those things. It doesn't make them bad or evil.

 

Just wrong. And maybe stupid.

[jokin]

Why do people get so angry when people disagree with them? Or offensive in needing to attack? KLaw has a different opinion than you, that doesn't make him bad, wrong, evil, stupid.

 

I think within the context of the venue in which he presented such little evidence for his case against Berrios, exactly as in the case of Kennys Vargas, Keith Law left himself wide open for the option that his opinions deserved to be questioned for his less-than-cogent conclusions- has anyone called him bad, evil or stupid? Just provided evidence that he might be "wrong" on what appears to be a superficially dismissive conclusion.

[JB_Iowa]

Don't buy into the twins gimmick about pitching to contact.. it simply just doesn't work.

 

Except for Phil Hughes -- at least in 2014 -- if you define "pitching to contact" as throwing in the strike zone. Phil Hughes is throwing more than 59% of his pitches in the zone. And his first pitch strike rate is just over 70%.

 

So if you define "pitch to contact" as throwing in the strike zone, it can be successful. I think this is actually what Anderson means by "pitch to contact" -- throwing it in the zone. I don't think he ever meant it to be throw it in a location and in a manner in which opposing batters can hit it at an extraordinarily high rate.

 

Unfortunately Twin pitchers frequently haven't executed it well. That's why seeing Hughes have a good season is fun. Control plus velocity.

 

Would be great if Berrios could emulate that.

[Brock Beauchamp]

The phrase "pitch to contact" needs to go away forever. Nobody wants the opposition to put wood on the ball every time. That's preposterous. Limiting walks and keeping pitch counts low has its merits.

 

I don't like most of the Twins' pitching acquisitions over the past decade but when they've had talent, they haven't told anyone to stop striking out hitters. The problem is that they kept acquiring people who weren't very good at throwing baseballs.

[benji21]

The phrase "pitch to contact" needs to go away forever.

 

I don't like most of the Twins' pitching acquisitions over the past decade but when they've had talent, they haven't told anyone to stop striking out hitters. The problem is that they kept acquiring people who weren't very good at throwing baseballs.

 

Yes and no. Rick Anderson coined that phrase and yes, has publicly said what we take as the meaning is not what he meant. However, our meaning has characterized his staffs for a decade. He is pitch to contact and he needs to go away forever before he gets his mitts on Meyer, may, et al.

[twinsbaby]

Care to define what NOT EVEN CLOSE is? Kohl Stewart is widely regarded as a potential Ace with a plus fastball and plus slider. Berrios is a year further along and is therefor more polished. Lets see how Stewart performs the rest of the year.

 

Not taking anything away from Berrios, but you're not being fair to a guy that has 75 professional innings.

 

What are you talking about? Kohl Stewart has ACE ceiling? You are kidding me.

 

I already said Kohl Stewart was next Zach Lee. Did you know who was Zach Lee?

 

Baseball America experts and ESPN expert said Lee would be frontline arm in the future in his first year. But Lee was incredibly overrated prospect at that time because he couldn’t miss bats. Right now, Lee still has that upside? NO, he just has workhorse upside.

 

Experts also said Kohl Stewart had frontline potential last year. But his stat line was more ugly than Lee at the same stage. His SIERA was 4.20. His BABIP was .236. Look his vedio, hitters make VERY HARD CONTACT on him, he couldn’t whiff anyone. A groundball pitcher who can’t miss bats has ACE ceiling? Give a name, ok?

 

Player Development? So, Shelby Miller didn’t develope, Archie Bradley didn’t develope? Why they could miss crazy bats but Kohl Stewart couldn’t? That was an excuse for me.

 

A young pitching prospect has control or command problem is not a serious problem, but a young pitching prospect has VERY LOW K/9 is a BIG problem.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Yes and no. Rick Anderson coined that phrase and yes, has publicly said what we take as the meaning is not what he meant. However, our meaning has characterized his staffs for a decade. He is pitch to contact and he needs to go away forever before he gets his mitts on Meyer, may, et al.

 

During that time, Anderson coached Santana, Liriano, Baker, Nathan, Rincon, etc. To my knowledge, he never told any of them to stop missing bats, though in the case of Liriano he certainly encouraged him to get the damned ball over the plate.

 

The problem is talent, not pitch to contact. And I say that as a person who's not particularly fond of Rick Anderson as a pitching coach.

[Brock Beauchamp]

What are you talking about? Kohl Stewart has ACE ceiling? You are kidding me.

 

I already said Kohl Stewart was next Zach Lee. Did you know who was Zach Lee?

 

Baseball America experts and ESPN expert said Lee would be frontline arm in the future in his first year. But Lee was incredibly overrated prospect at that time because he couldn’t miss bats. Right now, Lee still has that upside? NO, he just has workhorse upside.

 

Experts also said Kohl Stewart had frontline potential last year. But his stat line was more ugly than Lee at the same stage. His SIERA was 4.20. His BABIP was .236. Look his vedio, hitters make VERY HARD CONTACT on him, he couldn’t whiff anyone. A groundball pitcher who can’t miss bats has ACE ceiling? Give a name, ok?

 

Player Development? So, Shelby Miller didn’t develope, Archie Bradley didn’t develope? Why they could miss crazy bats but Kohl Stewart couldn’t? That was an excuse for me.

 

A young pitching prospect has control or command problem is not a serious problem, but a young pitching prospect has VERY LOW K/9 is a BIG problem.

 

I think you're overlooking the fact that Stewart is a pitching novice who has said that coaches have him working on very specific things over stats-based results.

 

If he's still struggling to miss bats next year, then it's time to raise red flags.